The president of the P.E.I. Nurses’ Union is calling on the province to review its mobile mental health service and 24/7 mental health and addictions phone line.
“We’ve been running with one to three RNs [registered nurses] in the program as well as the … social worker positions,” Barbara Brookins said. “We just want to know what the follow-up is and who actually knows whether or not there have been RNs and social workers performing the tasks.”
The province launched the mobile mental health response service back in October 2021, contracting Medavie Health Services Inc. to operate the program.
The service includes three mobile mental health units that respond to people in need of mental health care, as well as operating a 24-hour phone line people can call to speak to a registered nurse or social worker.
Brookins said that under that contract, there should be six full- and part-time nursing positions and six social workers assigned to the project.
She said many of those positions have been vacant since the program started.
Three vacant positions to fill
The province says that as of May 26, nine of the nursing and social worker positions on the teams were filled and recruitment was underway to fill three vacant positions — two for social workers in Montague and Charlottetown and one for a nursing role in Montague.
Donna Galloway, manager of the mobile mental health program, said all staff members rotate working shifts, answering calls on the mental health phone line or going out in the mobile mental health vehicles.
Since the program began, she acknowledges the